What’s new in ShareDesk

Fixed

• ShareDesk could freeze when a session began – for as long as a connected drive didn’t answer (a backup disk took minutes): to tell the technician the startup disk’s free space, macOS asks every drive. The technician’s Mac then ended the connection, as the remote Mac hadn’t proved its identity in time. ShareDesk no longer waits for drives; the computer info names one that doesn’t answer.

New

• The computer info window is in your language – German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch or Portuguese: the remote Mac writes it so, with its numbers and dates as your language writes them (ShareDesk 0.20.106 or later there; an older one sends English).
• File browser: apps are one item with their own icon, as in Finder – among the files, no longer folders. A double-click downloads one from the remote Mac, or opens one on this Mac; “Show Package Contents” looks inside.

Fixed

• German: inviting another technician into a session is “Techniker einladen”.

Fixed

• Sharp Text follows a dragged window more smoothly, with far less data – also in its last moments after you let go.

New

• How this Mac’s menu bar and the session toolbar come in full screen – when the pointer reaches the top, or only with the shortcut (⌃⌘M) – can now be chosen in the session toolbar’s Display menu and in the ShareDesk menu bar item too.

Fixed

• Changing it during full screen takes effect at once: it waited for the next full screen.
• Computer info: the startup disk is shown with its name, not only its free space.

Fixed

• Sharp Text: dragging one of ShareDesk’s own windows on the remote Mac (its main window, settings, the address book) took a lot of data. It now moves like any other window.
• Privacy mode, blocked input and view only were off after a reconnect, while the toolbar still showed them on – the remote screen could be seen again. They are switched on again with the new session.
• After a reconnect, the lock no longer shows “verified” before the new connection has proved itself, and the note that the customer hid the screen goes once they show it again.

Fixed

• Sharp Text could stand still after this Mac woke from sleep during a session (or its network was gone a moment) – only video showed the screen.
• No sound from the remote computer after reconnecting to one whose ShareDesk had restarted meanwhile (an update, for example).

New

• Quick Look in the file browser: Space – or “Quick Look” in a file’s menu – shows the files chosen, on this Mac and on the remote computer (fetched first, and deleted again when you close it). While it is open it follows the selection, as in Finder.

Fixed

• Session window: the first click into the picture of a session window that was not in front only brought the window forward – the click, or the start of a drawing, was lost. It now reaches the remote computer right away.
• Software updates of the remote Mac: the button that opens Software Update there shows its whole name, and the updates’ names are in line.

Fixed

• Window: the permissions of a session (below "Allow mouse and keyboard control") were not aligned – each line started somewhere else. They are one below the other again.

Improved

• When a connection stalls or has to be built anew, the remote Mac tells yours what it saw meanwhile – its connection, network changes, sleep and wake – and how it is connected (Ethernet, or Wi-Fi with its signal). It goes into your Mac's log, to find out why connections to a Mac stall. Diagnostics from a remote Mac now list its network too.

New

• New in the Debug menu: "Measure Color at a Point…". The remote Mac needs ShareDesk 0.20.95 for its value.

New

• When you talk to the customer, the remote Mac reports where it plays your voice – which speakers, at what volume, whether muted there – or why it can't play it. The session window shows it for a moment each time you start talking. The remote Mac needs ShareDesk 0.20.94.

Improved

• Remote monitors: a number for each one in the toolbar, and one for all of them – a single click to switch. The arrow next to them shows which number is which monitor.

Fixed

• A monitor picked went back within a second to the one the remote pointer was on ("Follow remote mouse pointer"). The picture now follows the pointer only when it moves to another monitor.
• Several monitors picked quickly one after another: the remote Mac now shows the one picked last – it could end up on an earlier one.

Improved

• "Session active" shows a green dot instead of a red one – a support session is nothing alarming.

Fixed

• Terminal: a connection that stalls for a moment no longer ends the shell. Each such moment started a new shell on the remote Mac, and the one in use – its folder, what ran in it – was gone. A new shell comes only when the connection really had to be built anew.

New

• Terminal: the customer can type in the terminal window on their Mac too, if they tick "Type here too" there – for a password the remote Mac asks for, say, which the technician then doesn't learn.

Improved

• Color test: more accurate patches on the remote Mac.
• The log notes when a connection stalls and which way it takes (local network, relay), to find out why.

Fixed

• Video from a Mac with macOS 12 and a wide-color display had wrong colors in 0.20.89 – a green of 0, 255, 0 arrived as 53, 255, 32, a red of 255, 0, 0 as 237, 0, 19. Measured with the color test, they now arrive unchanged.

Improved

• Color test: it also measures the colors on the remote Mac itself. The remote Mac needs ShareDesk 0.20.90.

Improved

• Video from a Mac with macOS 12 – an Intel iMac, for example – now shows wide-gamut colors (Display P3) as they are, as from newer Macs and with Sharp Text. The remote Mac needs ShareDesk 0.20.89.

Improved

• Sharp Text from a slower Mac: dragged windows move more smoothly, with less data.
• Diagnostics: the remote Mac's log tells more about dragged windows, to pin down jerky window drags.

Fixed

• Sharp Text from a Mac with macOS 12 – an Intel iMac, for example – was jerky: dragged windows didn't move smoothly, and the picture could drop to fewer pixels. It's smooth now, with the screen's colors as before. The remote Mac needs ShareDesk 0.20.87.

Fixed

• Video from an Intel Mac still came lighter (a gray of 128 as 139). Its colors now come as they are.
• Color test: its window keeps its size while the test runs (it jumped as the content changed), and Export… opens in front of the test's window instead of behind it.

Fixed

• The session window changed size and moved whenever the remote computer changed its resolution – a Windows PC does so under load. A picture in the same proportions now leaves the window as it is; only one of another shape (another monitor) fits it again.

Fixed

• Video from an Intel Mac showed mid-tones too light and colors off – a gray of 128 came as 139, a blue of 0, 101, 234 as 48, 112, 236. They now come as they are (remote Macs from 0.20.83).
• Color test: it has a window of its own now, and its readings are right.

Improved

• Diagnostics: the remote Mac's log tells more about Sharp Text, to find out what makes the picture jerky on a slower Mac.

New

• Colors as on the remote screen: this Mac shows them as the remote screen does – wide-gamut colors (Display P3) included, which were cut off before (a blue of 0, 101, 234 came as 43, 101, 234). In video too, from a wide-gamut screen, while every technician watching has 0.20.83. An older Intel Mac also keeps up better with Sharp Text. Both Macs need ShareDesk 0.20.83; with an older one the colors come as before.
• Color test: Export… saves the result as a CSV file.

Fixed

• Sometimes Sharp Text couldn't be chosen: what the remote Mac allows got lost at the start of the session (seen with an Intel iMac). This Mac now asks again, and the remote Mac sends it once more. A reconnect helped before.

New

• Color test, under Actions → Debug → Color Test…: checks that colors arrive as on the remote screen, in Sharp Text and in video. The remote Mac needs ShareDesk 0.20.82.

Fixed

• Sharp Text no longer drops from Retina to Standard on a fast connection while the remote screen keeps changing a little at a time – typing, a clock, a build's output. The remote Mac needs ShareDesk 0.20.82.

Improved

• Sharp Text: when the picture comes with fewer pixels because the window can't show more – a 5K screen in a smaller window – Display → Resolution says so; it showed Retina without a word. A larger window or full screen gets every pixel again. The remote Mac needs ShareDesk 0.20.81 for the note.

Fixed

• Video: the remote screen's colors and brightness come through as they are – macOS showed them lighter and paler (a dark gray of 49 as 60, a blue of 88,86,215 as 97,95,216). Now within one or two steps.
• Sharp Text: colors from some Macs were slightly off (seen on an Intel iMac: a blue of 0,101,234 showed as 40,95,233). They come as they are now.
• Both need ShareDesk 0.20.80 on the remote Mac.

Improved

• Sharp Text on slow connections: text and interfaces get sharp before photos, and the whole screen sooner, with far less data – on a very slow connection a 5K desktop was all sharp after about 5 seconds instead of 7. Photos come a little less sharp there.

Fixed

• Private network with the customer's network: the remote Mac's list of devices reached no longer shows the session's own connection checks (for example “10.0.10.20 (TCP 52864)”) – they never went through. Every real connection, also one that only tried a port, is listed as before.

Improved

• Sharp Text: going back to a page, a tab or a window you just saw is quicker now – also switching back and forth between two big pages.
• Sharp Text: Display → Colors offers what makes a difference there – 32, 16 or 8 colors (with 64 and more it looked like full color). Photos always stay as they are.
• Connection statistics: lost video packets with their share. Over the internet a few in ten thousand are usual, and most are made up in time. Sharp Text loses none.

Improved

• Sharp Text over the internet: a big change – another desktop picture, a page full of photos – shows after about a third of a second and is sharp right after, where it took 2 to 4 seconds before. Interfaces and text still come sharp at once where the connection allows. The remote Mac needs ShareDesk 0.20.77.

Improved

• Private network: where the customer's network is reached at its own addresses (for example 10.0.10.x), the menu now shows only those – the stand-in range 100.78.x.y next to them was confusing. It still appears where the own addresses can't be used, with the reason.

Fixed

• Private network with the customer's network: from another location, the devices there didn't answer at their own addresses (for example 10.0.10.x) – only the remote Mac did. Since 0.20.72 the network was hardly ever routed under its own addresses: a safety rule meant to keep the session from running through its own tunnel took effect almost always. Now the session's own connection checks are kept out of the private network on both Macs, and the network's own addresses work again. The remote Mac should have ShareDesk 0.20.75 too.

Improved

• The private network's menu says when the customer shared only their Mac, and why a network of theirs is reached only at its 100.78.x.y addresses.

Improved

• Several sessions open: only the ones you see get the picture. A session in a tab behind, in a minimized window or in one that is fully covered pauses the remote Mac's picture after 2 seconds – less data on the connection and less work on both Macs – and continues the moment you bring it to the front. A session you are recording keeps going. The remote Mac needs ShareDesk 0.20.74.

Improved

• Display → Colors: fewer colors keep the screen's own colors now, in Sharp Text and in video – 64 to 1024 colors turned most of the picture gray and all looked the same. With Sharp Text, even 8 colors keep text sharp and in its color, with far less data than full color, and photos stay as in full color. 8, 16 and 32 are colors too now instead of shades of gray; Grayscale stays. The remote Mac needs ShareDesk 0.20.73.

Fixed

• Private network: 0.20.71 could route the remote Mac's network into the private network even where your Mac reaches that network itself – then the session's own connection went in circles and broke again and again, and ssh or ping to the remote Mac failed. Networks your connection reaches the remote Mac in are now never routed (their stand-in addresses 100.78.x.y work as before), and if the connection breaks while a network is routed, the private network switches off at once.

Changed

• Connecting to a computer that already has a session open – from the address book, the Connect field or the toolbar's “+” – switches to that session (its tab) instead of opening a second connection to it.

Improved

• Private network with access to the remote Mac's network: its devices now answer at their own addresses (192.168.1.20 as over there) wherever your Mac doesn't use those addresses itself – before, only at stand-in addresses (100.78.1.20), which still work. The VPN helper is updated once on each Mac (administrator password). Both Macs need this version.

New

• The session window's toolbar has a “+” at its right end: another connection in a new tab.

Fixed

• Settings → Session → “Show names next to the toolbar icons” works: each control's name stands next to its icon, and the toolbar stays in the title bar. Before, the toolbar only moved down, without the names.

Fixed

• With Sharp Text, the picture no longer tears for a moment while it changes. Only the Mac you view from needs this version.

Fixed

• The video picture no longer flickers on some displays – it stopped only while the connection statistics were shown. Only the Mac you view from needs this version.

Fixed

• Files you copied on this Mac – pictures too – now paste with ⌘V where you paste on the remote Mac: into a message, a mail or a Finder window. Until now they were copied into the folder of the Finder window in front (often Downloads), even with Messages in front (the remote Mac needs this version).
• Copying and pasting files on the remote Mac is a plain copy and paste over there now: they no longer travel to this Mac and back. Files copied over there still come to this Mac's clipboard – small ones right away, bigger ones once you leave the session window.

Improved

• Sharp Text stays fast when a connection loses packets now and then (Wi-Fi, mobile networks, long routes over the internet): with 0.1 % of the packets lost over a distant connection, a big change arrives three to four times faster. The mouse and keyboard were never slowed by this. Both Macs need this version.

Fixed

• Switching between video and Sharp Text no longer shows a black screen for a moment: the picture on screen stays until the new one is complete.
• With Sharp Text, text and windows are now sharp from the first moment over the internet and on slow connections – 0.20.64 still showed them blurred at first, unlike what its notes said. Screens full of text also need less data (the remote Mac needs this version).

Changed

• With Sharp Text, the first picture of a session (and of a new screen size) comes sooner over the internet: photos and gradients are sharpened right after they appear; text and windows are sharp from the start. A 5K desktop is on screen after about 0.45 s instead of 0.7 s over a distant connection.
• Desktop pictures and gradients need far less data on local networks too – a 5K desktop picture is sharp after 0.3 s – and less work for the remote Mac.

Changed

• Sharp Text no longer stalls for seconds on busy or distant connections. Measured on slow and fast lines: nothing lost on the way any more (thousands of packets before), and over a distant connection a full 5K picture in about 1.5 s (none within half a minute before). Both Macs need this version.
• Big changes (the first picture, a new window) arrive sooner.

Fixed

• Moving the pointer quickly down out of the session window now always brings up the remote Mac's Dock: now and then an earlier pointer position arrived after the one at the edge and pulled the pointer back up (the remote Mac needs this version too).

Changed

• Sharp Text over the internet: the first picture of a desktop with photos, gradients and shadows comes several times sooner, with far less data, and looks the same. Icons, lines and text stay sharp, and on a local network everything stays as it was.

Fixed

• A quick ⌘Tab on a remote Mac now switches apps every time, without showing the app switcher first. Letting go of ⌘ before Tab left Tab pressed over there, so the next ⌘Tab did nothing, and 0.20.59 held ⌘ long enough for the switcher to show. A quick ⌘Tab now goes over in one piece (the remote Mac needs this version too).

Changed

• For the server's statistics, ShareDesk now tells it its version and the macOS version, and at the end of a session whether it ran directly or through the server and how it ended – no names, addresses or content.

Fixed

• ⌘Tab sometimes did nothing on a remote Mac, above all when pressed quickly: the Mac that is supported now holds ⌘ long enough for its app switcher (it needs this version too).
• After the password is typed on the session card, the keys go straight to the remote screen.

Changed

• Sharp Text is sharper with icons, shadows and textures: no more blurred colored edges, and the Mac that is supported needs a tenth of the time for them. Only on fast connections; on slow ones they come as before, with less data. Photos stay as they are.

New

• Private network (VPN, beta) into the customer’s network: the customer chooses “This Mac Only” or “This Mac and My Network”. Their devices are reached at addresses of their own here – 192.168.1.20 becomes 100.78.1.20 –, and Tools → Devices in Their Network… lists them, opened with a click (web page, Screen Sharing, files, SSH). The customer’s Mac routes nothing: ShareDesk connects only to devices of the networks they allowed, and lists each one. Needs ShareDesk 0.20.57 on both Macs; the VPN helper is updated once (administrator’s password).
• On the customer’s Mac the menu bar shows “VPN” while a private network is on; its menu lists the devices reached and ends it. Also in the session card and the session log.
• The private network now also works on macOS 12, and Macs with macOS 10.15 to 12.2 (their ShareDesk 0.20.57) offer the private network and the terminal too.
• For organizations: settings and features can be locked or switched off with a configuration profile (MDM) – terminal, file transfer, TCP tunnels, private network, network access, unattended access and more; locked settings say “Set by your organization”. An installer package for mass deployment: sharedesk.marketvision.ch/download/ShareDesk.pkg.
• Actions → Software Updates…: the macOS updates waiting on the remote Mac, and Software Update opened there.
• Actions → Invite Colleague…: a link for a second technician to join the session – or to take it over.
• Settings → Security: whether technicians may ask for a private network, and to reach devices of your network through it.

Changed

• The session window’s toolbar follows light and dark mode (it was always dark).
• The VPN helper is updated only when it changes – not after every update of ShareDesk.
• TCP tunnels reach only the customer’s Mac and its network; the internet only if the customer allows it (their Settings → Security → TCP tunnels). A refused tunnel says so in the TCP Tunnels window.

New

• Terminal-only connections: “Terminal” next to Connect (main window, New Connection, address book → Open Terminal) opens a shell on the remote Mac without its screen. Its user is asked (“… wants to open a terminal on this computer”) and sees the terminal in a window, which they can hide. With unattended access only if the terminal is allowed there (Settings → Security). Needs ShareDesk 0.20.55 or later on the remote Mac.

Fixed

• The connection request: “Block This ID” was cut off in some languages.
• Private network (VPN): an interface could stay open when the session ended while it was opening.

Fixed

• Private network (VPN, beta): it no longer breaks the session. The session’s own connection had found its way into the tunnel (and the tunnel runs over the session); now only traffic between the two private addresses goes through it, and the session never uses them. The VPN helper is updated: switching the network on asks once more for an administrator’s password.

New

• When a technician opens a terminal on this Mac, a window shows what they type and what comes out. It can be hidden; the menu bar menu shows it again.

Fixed

• Leaving the session window with the pointer: the remote pointer no longer follows along the top edge while you are at the toolbar, nor moves along the other edges outside the window. Through the bottom or a side it still goes to that edge (Dock, taskbar), then stays there.

Improved

• Private network (VPN, beta): the VPN helper now installs the way AnyDesk’s does – one administrator’s password, and it works at once; no more switch to turn on in System Settings → Login Items. ShareDesk asks for the password when the network is switched on (on either Mac) and updates the helper when a new version brings a new one. 0.20.51’s Login Items entry is removed.

Improved

• Updates show every change: when an update is ready, ShareDesk → Check for Updates… opens the update window with all changes since your version (it was a short notice). After an update ShareDesk installed on its own, a window lists what changed since the version before – on Macs used to give support; customers’ Macs stay quiet.
• The connection editor in the address book is clearer: a wider sheet in sections – name and ID, group and tags, connecting (profile, unattended password), billing, notes – with the computer’s details folded away; nothing is cut off any more.

New

• Private network (VPN, beta): Tools → Private Network connects the two Macs of a session as if they were in one network – each gets an address of its own (100.77…), and they reach each other’s shared folders, screen sharing, web servers, and ping. Nothing else of either network. The customer allows it each time; it ends with the session (or in the menu bar menu). Needs macOS 13 and ShareDesk 0.20.51 or later on both Macs, and once on each Mac the VPN helper (Settings → Security; macOS asks to allow it in System Settings → General → Login Items).

New

• Drag and drop through nested sessions, the other way too: files and folders dragged out of a ShareDesk session window inside the remote screen come out on this Mac – fetched through the Macs in between, as deep as the sessions go. Those Macs need ShareDesk 0.20.50 or later.

Improved

• Files passing through a Mac in between (nested sessions) leave no copy there.

New

• Drag and drop through nested sessions: files and folders dropped onto a ShareDesk session window inside the remote screen go on to that session’s computer – as deep as the sessions go. The Macs in between need ShareDesk 0.20.49 or later.

New

• Printing both ways: during a session your Mac has a printer for the computer you support (“ShareDesk – ” and its name). What you print on it comes out on a printer there, once the user there allows it and picks the printer. What the customer prints on “ShareDesk – technician’s printer” asks you first in the same way. The question offers “Print from … without asking” and “Print from any computer without asking”; Settings → Security turns asking off and on again. Needs ShareDesk 0.20.48 or later on both Macs.

Fixed

• A ShareDesk printer left over after a crash is removed at the next start – no longer the printer of a ShareDesk still running.

New

• Quick notes during a session: ⌃⌘N (or Actions → Quick Note…) adds a note, or a task for later, to the session log. The Notes panel shows this session’s notes and tasks and the tasks still open from earlier sessions with the same computer – tick them off there, or in the session log (new Tasks column and Open Tasks filter). The shortcut can be changed in Settings → Keyboard.
• Full screen without this Mac’s menu bar and the toolbar: Settings → Keyboard → Full screen → “Only with a shortcut” (⌃⌘M). The pointer at the top of the screen then reaches the remote computer’s menu bar; the shortcut shows and hides the bars.

Improved

• Locking this Mac when a session ends: by default only if it was locked when the session began – a Mac in use stays unlocked (before: locked after every unattended session). Settings → Security.

New

• Session window: labels under the toolbar icons, if you like (Settings → Session → Display). The toolbar items are now evenly spaced, without menu arrows, and some icons are clearer (Actions, Display, Notes).
• Keys → Force Quit Apps… opens macOS’s own Force Quit window on the remote Mac (Mac with ShareDesk 0.20.46 or later; otherwise the list of its apps as before).

Improved

• ⌘Tab on a remote Mac: the modifier keys (⌘, ⌥, ⌃, ⇧) now reach it as soon as you press them, as from a keyboard there – the app switcher opens right away.
• No more notice about the remote printer when a session starts.

New

• The session banner – shown on a Mac while someone is connected to it – shrinks to a small circle after 10 seconds, with a short animation, centred where the banner was. A click on the circle shows the banner again, and so does another technician connecting. Settings → Appearance: after 5, 10 or 30 seconds, after 1 minute, or never.

Improved

• A computer’s ShareDesk ID can now be changed on the website (after a reinstall or a new computer). Editing that computer on a Mac that hasn’t caught up yet no longer puts the old ID back. The editor shows the IDs it had before, and changing the ID removes the unattended password saved for it (it belonged to the old ID).

New

• Notes for groups – organizations, departments and categories: who to call, where things are, how they work there. Edit Group… has a Notes field, and the notes show above the group’s computers in the address book. With an account they are saved there and appear on the website too; notes written on this Mac before go there the first time.
• Notes in the session window: the Notes button (marked when there are any) shows the computer’s notes and those of its groups – department, organization – and you can change them right there during the session. Also in the Session menu.
• The address book marks computers that have notes.

New

• One chat for everyone connected to a Mac: the customer reads what every technician writes, each technician reads the customer and the other technicians, and whoever joins later gets what was written so far. Every message shows who wrote it – name, customer or technician, in their own color.
• Private messages: “To” in the chat sends a message to everyone, only to the other technicians (the customer doesn’t see it), or to one person. Private messages are marked as such.
• Save as HTML: a chat – in the session, or afterwards from the session log – as a web page with names and times.

The Mac connected to needs this version for the shared chat; technicians with older versions still chat with the customer.

New

• Remote printing: during a session, the remote Mac has a printer named “ShareDesk”. What you print on it there – from any app, with the pages and copies you choose – comes to your Mac and opens the print dialog with your printers (Save as PDF is in its PDF menu). The printer is there only while the session is, and the customer can turn it off like the other permissions (“Print on the technician’s printer”). Both Macs need this version; adding the printer needs an administrator account on the remote Mac (most are).

New

• When ShareDesk quits, the other side of every session learns it at once, and why: the technician sees “ShareDesk was quit on the remote Mac” instead of a connection that keeps trying. If the remote Mac shuts down, restarts or logs out, or its ShareDesk restarts for an update, the session window waits for it and reconnects. The other Mac needs this version too.
• Restart Remote Mac… tells you whether you can get back in afterwards. If nobody will be signed in and access at the login window is off there, you can turn it on first (that Mac asks for an administrator password on its screen; you can type it while controlling it). If FileVault is on, it says that someone has to type the password at that Mac first.

Fixed

• A remote display that went to sleep – through a hot corner the pointer ran into, for example – now wakes up as soon as you move the mouse or type in the session window.

New

• Billing step: each session is rounded up to it – 15 minutes unless you choose another in Settings → Time & Cost (exact minutes, 1 to 60 minutes); groups can have their own (Edit Group…). The menu bar shows the amount billed.
• Signed in, hourly rates and billing steps are saved in your account: every Mac you sign in on uses the same ones, and the website shows the time and revenue of your sessions. Rates set on this Mac before go to your account the first time.

Fixed

• Sharp Text: when the remote Mac couldn’t keep up (a big window dragged around fast on an older Mac) or the connection was slow, the picture dropped from Retina to a lower resolution for the rest of the session. It now goes back to Retina by itself once things calm down, and the Display menu says while the resolution is reduced, and why.
• A single slow moment could make a session treat its connection as slow from then on (less sharp video, Sharp Text at a lower resolution).

Improved

• Sharp Text: a window dragged around fast now moves smoothly on older Macs too, with a fraction of the data and of the work.
• Video from Intel Macs with a 5K screen comes at 4K at most (the most they can send as video); the Display menu now says so. Sharp Text shows every pixel.
• The cost in the menu bar changes once a minute instead of with every second.

Improved

• Sharp Text: photos, wallpapers and gradients need far less data, at slightly better quality.
• Sharp Text: text and interfaces need less data too, above all on slow connections.
• Sharp Text on slow connections: a big change (a new page, a window opening) appears quickly and turns sharp within moments while the screen rests. Both Macs need this version for Sharp Text.
• About ShareDesk lists the open-source software included in ShareDesk and links to their licenses.

Fixed

• Sharp Text: the remote pointer no longer appears now and then as a second pointer next to yours. The remote Mac now says whether the pointer is where you put it, so its pointer only shows when the customer moves it. The remote Mac needs this version.

Improved

• Sharp Text: the pointer and everything else you do no longer wait behind big changes of the picture.

Improved

• Sharp Text: dragging a window now takes a small fraction of the data, so it stays smooth even on slow connections.
• Sharp Text: scrolling and big changes are quicker, and on distant connections small changes no longer wait for each other. Both Macs need this version.

Fixed

• Computer Info → Storage lists every drive once: its volumes (free space, format, where mounted) together with the disk's size, model and connection, the startup disk first. Before, each drive appeared twice. The remote Mac needs this version.

Improved

• Session menu → New Connection Tab…: connects to another computer in a new tab of the session window (also with the + in the tab bar).
• The Display menu now has the screen icon and the Session menu the settings icon.

Improved

• Sound menu: shorter, clearer entries. When the remote Mac can't send its sound, the menu simply says so (the reason is in the button's help), and the microphone switch is just called Microphone.

New

• Sharp Text: Display → Colors now works as with Video, from 1024 colors down to 8 shades of gray – fewer colors need far less data, and the whole picture then comes without any blur. Resolution offers Retina, Standard and Low.

Improved

• Sharp Text: big changes (a window opening, a new page) arrive several times faster, above all from older Intel Macs. If the remote Mac still can't keep up, Sharp Text switches to fewer pixels by itself.

Fixed

• Privacy mode: the black curtain no longer flashes up for the technician when it is switched on or off (with Video and with Sharp Text). The remote Mac now shows it only once it is left out of the picture.
• Sharp Text: the statistics panel grows with its lines instead of cutting off the longest one.
• Sharp Text: the connection statistics are steadier – a button lighting up under the pointer no longer makes them jump.

Fixed

• Sharp Text: a window being dragged no longer leaves copies of itself behind until it stops.
• Sharp Text with privacy mode: the technician saw the black curtain instead of the screen.
• Sharp Text on slow connections no longer stalls for a moment after a burst of activity.

New

• Sharp Text (Beta), for sessions with another Mac: under Display → Picture, choose Sharp Text instead of Video. Text and interface then stay perfectly sharp, pixel for pixel, with no video blur; a window shown again or a page scrolled back appears at once, and on a slow connection it stays responsive. Video remains the default; the remote Mac needs this version.

Improved

• Settings → Time & Cost: every currency to choose from, and no hourly rate until you set one.

Fixed

• A fast local connection was sometimes taken for a slow one, and the picture came through less sharp at first. ShareDesk now only adapts to a slow link once the problem lasts.

Improved

• The menu bar shows what a session costs as soon as an hourly rate applies (Settings → Time & Cost; before, the cost had to be switched on first).
• The Mac you support no longer shows the session time in its menu bar; its menu lists it.

Fixed

• Slow connections (cellular, a busy Wi-Fi): the picture no longer freezes, and messages no longer arrive seconds late – ShareDesk adapts to a slow link within seconds.
• On a slow connection, a computer you know was sometimes cut off with a warning that someone might be intercepting the connection. Its proof of identity simply hadn’t arrived yet; ShareDesk now waits for it while the link is struggling.
• Typing into apps that read keys rather than text now works: passwords in AnyDesk (when you control another computer from the remote Mac), games and similar apps got the wrong characters. Each character now arrives as the key press that types it on the remote keyboard layout. The remote Mac needs this version.

Improved

• With a computer you have connected to before, typing waits until it has proved its identity (normally a fraction of a second), so a password typed at its login window can never reach someone in between.

Fixed

• Moving the pointer all the way down (or to a side) now reliably reaches the remote screen’s edge, so the Dock or the taskbar comes up – the black bars beside the picture count as the edge.

Improved

• Drawing: arrows, rectangles and circles (hold Shift for a square or a true circle), an eraser for single drawings and “Remove Last Drawing” (Tools → Draw on the Screen). Drawings now stay until you remove them; “Fade Out After a Few Seconds” brings back the old behavior. The customer’s Mac needs this version to keep and remove single drawings.
• The ShareDesk menu bar item is there whenever ShareDesk runs: your sessions, New Connection, recent computers, the session log, settings and updates. While you give support it shows how long the session has been connected and, if you like, what it costs.
• New Settings → Time & Cost: seconds, cost, the default hourly rate and the currency. Groups and computers can have their own rate (Edit Group…, Edit… in the address book).
• Settings → General: “Show in menu bar” is now “Keep running in the menu bar when the window is closed”.

Improved

• Chats are kept after the session: in the session log, sessions with a chat show a chat icon. Click it, double-click the row or choose “Show Chat” to read it again, or “Copy Chat” to copy it. Chats stay on this Mac, are kept for the sessions the log records, and are deleted with their log entry.
• Clicking the chat icon while the chat is open closes it.

Improved

• The title bar shows who is connected and on which computer again, right under ShareDesk (or the ShareDesk ID, if you show IDs instead of names in Settings → Session).

Improved

• The session controls moved into the title bar, as icons with tooltips: the menus first, then chat, files and the lock. The title just says ShareDesk; with several sessions, the tabs name the computers. In full screen the bar appears when you move the pointer to the top.
• The terminal is black at 85 % opacity, so what is behind it shows through, like Terminal’s “Pro” style.

Fixed

• Drawing on the customer’s screen works again. The strokes never arrived.
• Session log: the arrow of a selected entry is white instead of blue on blue.

Improved

• A tidier session toolbar: a few menus instead of a row of buttons. Session (computer info, save to the address book, view only, block the customer’s input, privacy mode, restart), Display (quality, colors, view, statistics), Keys, Tools (drawing, screenshot, recording, terminal, TCP tunnels), Sound (the remote computer’s sound and your microphone in one menu), Chat and Files.
• The computer and its user appear only in the window title, the lock sits at the right end of the title bar and is no longer green. The Full Screen and Disconnect buttons are gone: the window’s green and red buttons do the same.
• Connection statistics stay on screen in a small see-through panel that you can drag anywhere (Display → Show Connection Statistics). It opens again in the next session until you close it.
• Computer info opens in a window of its own (Session → Computer Info…).

Fixed

• Double-clicking a computer in the address book connects again. It only worked on the empty space below the list.

Improved

• Settings are rearranged so that no tab needs scrolling. The new Access tab holds who may connect, supporters, unattended access and the session log. The new Keyboard tab holds the shortcut settings and your own key combinations and texts (formerly “Macros”), and “Edit Key Combinations…” in the Keys menu opens it. The server address is now under Account.
• The Keys menu shows the combinations for the remote computer’s system: Mac shortcuts for a Mac, Windows shortcuts for a PC.
• Info shows the overview right away; the other tabs follow once the remote Mac has collected them (it needs this version too).

Fixed

• Privacy mode: the black screen now appears only at the customer’s computer. The technician sometimes saw it too, instead of the screen.
• “Check for Updates…” did nothing while a downloaded update was waiting to be installed. Now it offers to install it right away.
• ⌘⌥⎋ can’t be sent to a remote Mac: macOS accepts it only from a real keyboard. The Keys menu now opens a list of the remote Mac’s open apps instead, where you can force quit one. The remote Mac needs this version too.

Improved

• While you wait for the customer to accept, the time is shown and there is a Cancel button. If the computer went offline, ShareDesk says so instead of waiting.
• The privacy mode entry now says what it does: the customer’s monitor turns black, and you keep seeing the screen.
• Less work for the customer’s Mac during a session, and while ShareDesk waits in the background.

Improved

• Address book: select several computers (⌘-click or ⇧-click) to move, tag or delete them together. Dragging one of them takes all of them along.
• Files: file names get more room and dates are shorter. The transfers area stays one line until something is transferred, and files-only sessions open wide enough for both panes.
• Session log: a session cut off by a crash, a forced quit or an update now ends when it was last seen running. Before, it ended when ShareDesk was next quit, which gave durations of many hours. “running” is translated.

New

• Tags in the address book: give computers free labels such as “Server” or “VIP”, the same tags as on the website. Edit them under Edit… or with the Tags menu (right-click), or drop computers onto a tag in the sidebar. Click a tag to see its computers; search finds tags too.

Improved

• Connecting no longer overwrites changes made on the website or by a colleague in the meantime, such as a new name or tags. ShareDesk sends only what it updates itself: the last connection, the computer details and a remembered password.

Improved

• In the connection request, Accept responds only after a second, so a click that was already on its way when the request appeared can’t accept it.
• The banner during a session shows the technician’s name without the company, so it no longer gets cut off in German. The company is in the banner’s details.
• An empty address book no longer shows a lone “Groups” heading.

Improved

• When a technician asks to connect, the request now opens in its own window: their photo and contact details, and what they may do in the session, each with a checkbox. It appears on top of every app and Space without taking the keyboard.
• Accepting a request takes a click. Pressing Return while typing in another app no longer accepts a session by accident.
• A countdown shows when an unanswered request closes by itself.

Improved

• The session toolbar has a Full Screen button. In full screen the toolbar hides; move the pointer to the top of the screen to bring it back.
• Address book: drag a group onto another group to put it inside, or onto the “Groups” heading to move it to the top level.
• Deleting a computer from the address book asks first, also with the Delete key.
• The New Connection window (⌘T) shows each computer’s desktop picture and whether it is online.
• macOS 12: double-click connects in the address book, and right-click shows the menu of the computer you clicked.

New

• Computer details in the address book: when you connect, ShareDesk saves the computer’s processor, memory, startup disk, serial number, IP address, displays, battery and ShareDesk version with its entry. You find them under Edit… and on the website (Computers → ⋯ → Details). The other computer sends them, so they appear once it runs this version.

New

• Groups in the address book: sort computers into organizations, departments and categories, nested as deep as you like. Drag computers onto a group or use “Move to”. Sharing a group shares its subgroups too, and groups others share with you appear under “Shared with Me”. They are the same groups as in the account area on the website.
• Full screen: the toolbar is now part of the title bar. In full screen it hides with it and comes back when you move the pointer to the top of the screen, so the remote screen gets the whole display.
• The Connect buttons on the website open ShareDesk. Computers from your address book connect right away; any other ID is only filled in.
• Settings → Account: change your first and last name. Your name and portrait are the same in all your profiles, one profile per company you work for.

Improved

• The address book shows each computer with its desktop picture, not a screenshot from the last session. The screenshots saved by earlier versions are deleted.
• The session toolbar shows icons only when the labels don’t fit, and messages appear over the picture.
• If the address book can’t be saved to the server, it says so and offers Try Again.

New

• Team management has its own tab (Settings → Team): change names and roles, reset passwords and see who was active when. New members get a generated starting password, ready to copy and pass on; removing someone asks first.

Improved

• Computers are shown by name, such as “Mac Studio (2022)” or “MacBook Pro 16″ (2021)”, instead of codes like Mac13,1.
• The computer info lists only real disks and the volumes you see in Finder, not the disk images macOS mounts for itself.

Improved

• Up to 240 frames per second: with gaming monitors (144, 165 or 240 Hz) on both sides, the picture follows at their refresh rate instead of at most 120.

New

• A setup window shows the macOS permissions ShareDesk needs, with a picture of where to switch them on in System Settings. Come back from System Settings and it shows them as allowed right away.
• Resolution: Retina, 1.5× or Standard, in Settings → Session and for each session under Display.

Improved

• Macs that can't send Retina (5K screens on older Intel iMacs) now send 1.5× (3840 × 2160) instead of Standard.
• A Retina screen watched in a smaller window comes sharper: at the smallest of Retina, 1.5× or Standard that fills the window.
• Wrong password: type the right one in the session window and connect again.

Improved

• The clipboard syncs by itself in both directions, also while the session window stays in front (for example with Universal Clipboard). The "Send clipboard" button is gone.
• Passwords from password managers and anything copied before the session started still only go over when you paste them with ⌘V.

Improved

• Connecting is faster still: the remote Mac learns your screen size with the connection request and starts at the right picture size right away.

Improved

• The remote screen appears about twice as fast after connecting.
• The first picture already has the right size for your window, instead of switching to it a moment later.

Improved

• Sessions start sooner and cleaner: the picture doesn't switch sizes while connecting.
• When another technician joins, those already connected no longer notice it – before, their mouse and keyboard stalled for half a second.

Improved

• After a network drop or change (another Wi-Fi, Ethernet, VPN), this Mac is reachable again right away, and a session being restored reconnects at once – before, it could take up to 30 seconds.

Improved

• Updates install by themselves as soon as ShareDesk isn't in use (no session, its window not in front) – a Mac kept ready for support no longer stays on an old version until it restarts. ShareDesk restarts on its own and is reachable again within seconds.

New

• Pictures follow the clipboard too: a screenshot or image copied on one Mac can be pasted on the other with ⌘V (both Macs need this version). When the clipboard holds text as well, the text goes as before.

New

• 120 frames per second when both Macs have a ProMotion screen (or another 120 Hz display): smoother motion, and every change is on its way twice as fast.

Improved

• The permissions box in the main window only appears when ShareDesk can't work without something (Screen Recording, Accessibility). The shield next to “Ready” shows the state of all permissions; a click lists them with a way to fix each.
• Steadier picture when the screen gets busier or calmer.

Fixed

• 0.19.0 again, now checked by Apple (notarized) like every version: it opens without warnings, also after a download from the website.

Improved

• Quicker picture from Macs with Apple silicon: changes reach the technician 15–25 ms sooner and smoother, at the same sharpness.

Fixed

• What the customer allows (control, clipboard, files, sound, …) now reaches the technician's window right when the session starts. Before, it only arrived after the customer changed something.

Improved

• Remote Macs that can't send their sound (macOS 12, login window) show “No Sound” in the session window instead of staying silent.

Improved

• File transfers between Macs with this version: text, logs and documents often arrive several times faster (a 30 MB log file in 3 instead of 16 seconds on a typical line). Photos, videos and archives go as fast as before.

New

• The session banner on the customer's Mac can be dragged anywhere and made smaller: a small circle with the technician's picture. The session details open as a dropdown right below it. Settings → General → “Remember where the session banner is” keeps its place for the next sessions.
• Remote sound comes about 40 ms sooner, so sound and picture match better (also in the browser viewer, where the browser supports it). Older versions keep working as before.

Improved

• The banner shows its whole text, also with long names and in longer languages.

Fixed

• ShareDesk could quit unexpectedly shortly after the Mac woke from sleep, or when the sound output changed (e.g. AirPods), while the remote computer's sound was on. Sound now simply continues on the new output.

New

• ShareDesk now also speaks French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil) and Dutch. It follows your Mac's language (or System Settings → General → Language & Region → Applications).

Improved

• Much sharper picture for games, videos and anything that moves.
• In the local network the picture is sharper still (also in “Balanced”).
• A still picture sharpens step by step instead of with one big picture: the session stays quick.

Fixed

• Profiles → Adjust Crop: zooming enlarges only the photo; the circle keeps showing exactly what the customer will see.

Improved

• Clipboard: text you copy on your Mac is pasted on the remote computer with ⌘V – no need to click “Send clipboard” first. Passwords from password managers only go when you paste them.
• All shortcuts reach the remote computer: ⌃1…⌃9, ⌃← / ⌃→, ⌘Space and others no longer act on your own Mac (needs the Accessibility permission on your Mac).
• Sending files no longer blocks the session: mouse and keyboard stay responsive during a transfer, which adapts to the speed of the connection.

Fixed

• Keys → Edit Macros… opens the macro settings again.
• Updates: Macs on 0.15 get the 0.16 versions again.

Improved

• Session window: the toolbar buttons fit their labels in every language.
• Settings open on the tab you used last; tidier layout (no duplicate labels, aligned permission list, left-aligned notes).

Improved

• macOS 12: an idle screen no longer sends a constant stream of frames, so the picture settles to full quality.
• Session log and address book: access types and “Uncategorized” in your language.
• Diagnostics: more robust collection and upload.

New

• Help → Send Diagnostics: sends ShareDesk's recent log and crash reports to support and gives you a reference. After a crash, the crash report is sent automatically.
• Technicians can fetch the diagnostics of the remote Mac from the session menu.
• Beta versions: Settings → General → Updates → Receive beta versions (for test computers).
• macOS 12: “All monitors” works again, and the session banner is hidden from the technician.

Improved

• A big screen watched in a small window needs far less data.
• Sharper text: once the screen is still for a moment, the picture is refined to high quality.
• Messages from the other computer (refused, ended, …) appear in your language.

Fixed

• Same-network detection now also works in networks where it failed before.

Improved

• Same network: sessions between computers in the same local network keep a sharp and quick picture – also when you come back after a pause.

New

• ShareDesk speaks German: the app follows the macOS language (System Settings → General → Language & Region).

Fixed

• Intel Macs: short freezes after a click or typing following a pause.
• macOS 12: settings are neatly aligned (sections one below the other instead of two misaligned columns).

Improved

• Colors: 32, 16 and 8 are now shades of gray – far more readable than that few colors.
• The session writes its connection quality to the system log every 5 seconds, to find the cause of slow phases.